This year I celebrate the faithfulness of the Lord in the toughest, yet most enriching journey of my life. It is exactly 5 years to date since the Lord asked me to give up my dream so others less fortunate can have a dream of their own. Five years ago the Lord took me on this journey of sacrifice. Like everybody else, I had my own dream. The Lord asked me to give up mine, follow his so others can have one. It has been a journey with so much to write about. You have walked a good part of it with me so I celebrate this landmark with you. Thank you for playing your part in helping me find the courage to obey the Lord.
My Dream
When I reached my twenties I was full of aspirations for success. I picked up my first University diploma and quickly found a job. I enjoyed the feeling of drawing a decent pay check. I loved the freedom of being single with a place of my own to call home. I sustained a huge desire to study more for my degrees and perhaps even doctorates. I prospered in my career and rose through the ranks. I was herding to the top and found significance with each new conquest in my stride. I had my whole life planned out ahead of me. My fairy bling dream. When the turning point came, God was very clear in what he wanted me to do. He let me know the dream I was chasing was too small compared to the one he held for me. I had lots of questions. He did not give me all the answers but he gave me assurance. Assurance that he was setting me on a journey for a far much bigger dream. To date he continues to answer my questions on this journey. He has used you to answer some of my questions. Thank you for playing your part in helping me hear God's answer to my questions.
God's Dream
God made it clear he wanted me to champion a bigger dream than I had been seeking. It was very clear to me that the bigger dream was to be at the expense of my own. I had to give up my dream for a bigger one. The bigger dream was the dream of God. God had a dream for a special people. In entrusting me with his dream, he was asking if I was ready to follow him on a journey of obedience and sacrifice. God had a dream for the poor, the sick and the less privileged of my native Africa and my generation the youth. It was a passionate dream. It was a dream of love. He loved the people so much he would sacrifice anyone else's dream to give the poor, sick and less fortunate a dream. Was I willing enough to give up my own so others can have a dream? Was I ready enough to bear my cross and follow Christ as he would wash the feet of his beloved the HIV/AIDS infected, the orphans & vulnerable children, the homeless street kids, the widows and outcast masses of Africa? Was I brave enough to pursue a bigger dream of faith, obedience and sacrifice? Each day of my last five years has been a test of my faith, a taste of God's faithfulness and a foretaste of Christ's glory. You have been a witness with me on the steadfastness of God in keeping his promise. Thank you for letting God keep his word of assurance to me.
Dream for Africa
Five years ago to date I volunteered to be a part of the hundreds of young men and women from all over the world who would join Dr. Bruce Wilkinson's crusade across Africa. Dr. Bruce had a dream for Africa. A dream that Africans can stand up to a fight against HIV/AIDS, Hunger, Poverty, lack of Education and Leadership. I joined in as we championed the dream for Africa through a program called Beat the Drum. God used the experience on this program to communicate a mission to me that I would only understand much later. When the program for that year ended, I was happy to go back home to my country but God was giving me a new home. My new home would be wherever his journey would lead me. One step, one day at a time. When Dr. Bruce left Africa to go back home to America and effectively signal the end of Dream for Africa, the Lord reminded me that God's Dream for Africa was only beginning. That year my first mission was to South Africa's poorest and worst AIDS affected region the Transkei. At the end of it, I had experienced and learnt a lot. Looking ahead then, I was not clear as to which way forward my journey was herded. To date the Lord has taken me back on a mission to the Transkei once every one of the last five years. Each journey has been a sort of 'homecoming' to 'my birth place' in missions. The Transkei. You have once either been with me on one of those trips, prayed for me, contributed towards or facilitated my trip. Thank you for the part you've played in God's Dream for His beloved Africa.
God's Dream for Me
“I have good plans for you. Plans to prosper you and to give you a future”. The Lord gave me his assurance in those ancient words of Jeremiah. A year after my first Beat the Drum mission He asked me to be a part of the pioneering group of young leaders from Southern Africa & the U.S in a program called the Leadership Experience- LXP. I received a year's worth of mentorship under George Mwanza who's brainchild LXP is. The following year I would be asked to join George as his inaugural support staff together with my closest friend Sydney. I was blest to run LXP for much of the following year in the absence of George and grew in my leadership. Under his leadership, George would exercise such trust of me as I had never experienced anywhere before. God would later charge me to model my leadership on trust. Trust of the people I would lead in the equal measure as I had received from him and from my mentor. Graduating through my journey over LXP as student and staff my character was challenged for the better. My perception of God's dream for my life was further illuminated. My idea of leadership was transformed to mirror the Christlike servant leadership type with a redeemed understanding of Success and Significance. Thank you for what amount you contributed to build towards God's dream for me.
Build small but Dream Big
Ten years ago I read the book “Dream Big”. Five years ago I worked with “Dream for Africa” by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson. Three years ago I met Floyd McClung and rediscovered 'Simple Church'. After meeting Floyd and hearing his heart on God's original concept of church we agreed with George to work together and serve with Floyd as LXP on the biblical model of Church. I was honoured to lead a group of senior LXP students with Sydney to Floyd's Church Planting Experience – CPx 2008. That was a huge moment of mind renewal for me. God's Big Dream for his church was founded on very simple basics. I discovered the values of loving God, loving the lost and loving one another as core values of God's family. Floyd's All Nations Family typifies this actively. I together with my friends Sydney, Cornie, Godfrey, Willy & Vakele were excited to discover, through CPx, the simplicity of God's Big Dream for the Church. We are excited to see God bring the renaissance of the Church and State of Africa through a simple model and a simple people like you and I. Such has been the impact of the truth as we acquired on CPx that we agreed to work and walk together with Floyd's All Nations family. We are committed to each other as All Nations and LXP as our hearts beat to the same passions for seeing God's kingdom come to the poor and unreached masses of Africa. I have stayed on in Capetown with Sydney and Willy to serve under Floyd with All Nations. Godfrey has gone on to pioneer the newest of LXP chapters in his native the kingdom of Lesotho. Cornie is back to the LXP headquarters at Jeffrey's bay under George. Together we are living and championing God's big dream for Africa in the simplest of ways. By faith in Christ, obedience to God's call and sacrifice to serve the poor. Thank you for every prayer you have invested towards us, every word of encouragement and every practical support you have rendered to bring the reality of God's providence on this journey.
Dreaming The Future
Come let us dream together. “In the last days...” God says “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both male and female, I will pour out my spirit in those days”- Joel 2:28. This generation has been branded in many different negative terms by critics. But we are “a chosen generation...” We are the generation of which the Lord speaks through the prophet Joel. The Lord spoke to the prophet of the future. We are the future. I celebrate my 5th Anniversary in this Dream journey with the Lord and you have been a part of it. I don't know whether to plant my next step to the left or to the right. I don't know whether to step forward or retreat backwards. What I know is that God' journey for his people continues. Like the old African saying goes “Aluta continua” i'e “the journey continues”. Just like God invited me to follow him, I invite you to come lets journey together with the Lord. I have shared this with you because I value your contribution towards me this far. Please find it within you to stay with me. Together let's carry the dream of God to Africa. It has not been any easy for me to remain on this journey more than it has been for you to make the contribution you have made. No amount of support from you has been too small. A prayer, a word of encouragement, time to listen to me, a gesture of friendship, financial support or indeed your time to come along on the journey. You have been to me what the two guys Aaron and Hur were to Moses in the battle of Amalek in Exodus 17. You have been to me what Jonathan was to David. A friend indeed. You have been to me what those diligent women were to Jesus & his disciples in Luke 8:1-3. This dream has been often times scary and daunting and many at times seemed much easier to give up but of all the means God chose to keep me going, God chose to use you at the precise mement when he did. Thank you for making this less lonely.
African Dream or Nightmare?
Often there has been, on this road, a thin line between the dream or a nightmare. I have learnt as quoted from Cassie Carstens that “if your vision does not scare you, God is not in it”. The scary moments of this vision for Africa have seemed a whole lot bearable with the part you have played. As I celebrate this 5th year anniversary of an amazing journey in grace, I feel with all the uncertainties which lie ahead that your commitment to journey along will make the next five years a little less lonely. I am often scared. Scared of so many things. Scared to ask for your trust on something which to many is only a dream. Scared that in spite of all odds this is the one journey on which my happiness and fulfillment lie. Scared that without your support this dream can so easily seem a nightmare. Scared that even in the reality of the global economic decline, I might yet require the boldness to ask for your financial support to remain on the journey. Scared that your expectations on this journey may be more overwhelming than I can bear. Scared that I may not be hearing the Lord as clearly unless you listen with me. Scared that this is most certainly an overload of text for you to read(I appologise). I am scared of quiet a number of things. What if this dream fails and Africa remains a nightmare? Thank you for obeying God so that this dream doesn't become a nightmare .
Your Dream on this Journey
I request your support to keep this dream alive. I believe so much that together God believes in us so much, he knows we will make a difference. Every grieving widows, every starving community, every lonely orphan, every abandoned child, every stigmatised AIDS victim, every sin blinded people group and every enslaved midset will see the glory of the Lord as we have. This crusade is no lone ranger mission. It is a harvest of souls by God's workforce. The final harvest.
Feedback
Please write back to me chitambala@gmailcom . I value your feedback so greatly. Let me know if you are committed to come along on this journey.. Reply to me if you wish to receive my blog updates or if you wish to receive my newsletter. I have been receiving lessons from the Lord which I'd be glad to share on request. I'm sure you too have been learning a lot from the Father. I'd love to hear what lessons God's teaching you. Please let me know also God's dream for your life to his people. I believe that you do too, because I have a dream.
